Childcare waitlists deceiving says Treasured Tots owner

CHILD care waitlists can be deceiving, according to the owner of two local centres.

Treasured Tots Child Care’s Simone O’Brien, who has centres in Fremantle and Bibra Lake, said the reason waitlists seemed to be out of control was because families would put their names down without intending to start their child on a specific date.

She said she had a waitlist of 110 families when she recently moved from a 28-place centre in Fremantle to a bigger 98-place one.

“It was a surprise to see that only 15 families from the 110 were ready to enrol,” she said.

“When contacting families on the waitlist many are unreachable and those that we did get hold of had either found care elsewhere or had decided not to go ahead with child care altogether.

“The families who legitimately need child care are often scared off by these massive waitlists, when the reality is a lot of the families won’t go ahead with their place once it becomes available.”

She said the issue would be solved if families were more forthcoming with their intentions and removed themselves from waitlists if they had already found a place or if circumstances had changed and they no longer wanted childcare.

Visit www.treasuredtotschildcare.com.au for more information on the centre.